The Bellas are Back
by speechdork
Summary: After winning the world championship, Emily Junk is back at Barden to take on her role as the new leader of the Bellas. The only problem - she's the only one left. She finds help in Bridget Swanson, but will it be enough to make the new Bellas champions without calling in the pros?
1. I Got My Ticket For the Long Way 'Round

Emily Junk paced back and forth in front of the recruitment table she had just finished setting up for the freshman orientation activity fair. She was about to start her  
sophomore year at Barden University, as well as her first year as leader of the a cappella world-champion Barden Bellas. Everyone else in the group had graduated, leaving her to fend for herself and build the team up from scratch. Everything had to be perfect.

"Em, the freshman aren't gonna be here for three hours, calm down." Beca Mitchell, previous leader of the Bellas and recent graduate, said to her.

"I know, but what if I can't find nine girls? What if no one wants to be a Bella? What if everyone still thinks we're a laughing stock?"

"Dude, we just won the a cappella world championship, we're hardly a laughing stock," Beca told her, "Actually forget that."

"Don't listen to Beca," Benji Applebaum, whom Emily had been dating for the past three months, reassured her, "Wait to see how today goes before you freak out. But you'll be fine."

"Yeah, yeah, you're right. I can do this." Emily said, more to reassure herself than Beca and Benji. She was determined to do this. 

Bridget Swanson lay on the futon in her brother's apartment, face in her pillow, trying desperately to get as much sleep as she possibly could. Her alarm had gone off fifteen minutes ago.

She was moving into her dorm at Barden that day to start her first year of college. Apparently her parents had seen enough of Barden in her brother's four years there, so she had crashed at his apartment the previous night so they wouldn't have to make the trip early in the morning.

"Bridget! Time to wake up!" Speak of the devil.

Bridget groaned in response to his sing-song-y wake up call. What did he think this was, a Disney movie?

Probably.

"Bridge, seriously you gotta get up." He said, sitting on her bed.

She didn't respond.

So he proceeded to pull the blanket off of her.

"Jesse!"

"Bridget!"

"Why do I _have_ to get up right now?"

"Because you have to move into college today. And I told Benji I'd meet him at eleven."

"I'll just get Beca to drive me," Bridget said, sitting up.

"Beca's already there." Jesse said and proceeded to leave the room.

"What!?" Bridget reluctantly got out of bed and followed Jesse into his small kitchen.

"She went to meet up with Emily."

"And I thought I liked Beca. I thought she was on my side, sleeping in late."

"Yes, but Beca's an adult now, and we adults have to get up early to be productive."

"You're 22."

"I don't see your point."

Bridget just stared at him.

"Are you ready to move in?"

"Well, I'm not dressed obviously, but besides that yes."

"Good. Go change, we'll get breakfast on the way."

Bridget groaned and dragged herself back to the living room to get clothes. 

"Baker Hall…memories, man." Jesse said as they stood in front of the door to Bridget's room.

"What?" Bridget said, putting her new key into the door.

"Nothing, just, Beca lived here freshman year."

"Gross."

Jesse opened his mouth to retaliate but Bridget had already walked into the room.

Inside was a blonde girl decorating her side of the room, which was much too pink in Bridget's opinion.

"Hey, you must be Heather," Bridget said.

"Oh hi!" the girl turned around, beaming, "That's me! You're Bridget I'm assuming."

"Yup." Bridget smiled at her, but was a little wary of Heather's perkiness. She turned to look at Jesse, whose arms were still holding boxes stacked so that he could barely see over them. "Jess, you can put the boxes down, you know."

"Right," Jesse said, dropping the boxes on the bed and sitting next to them.

"Oh em aca-gee, you're Jesse Swanson!" Heather said, bounding over to him.

"Um, yeah…" Jesse said. Bridget eyed him suspiciously.

"Sorry, I'm a big fan," Heather said. "I saw you perform at regionals the past three years, you guys are awesome."

"Oh, cool. I graduated though…"

"Oh I know. But I really want to be a Barden Bella. Wait, are you still dating Beca Mitchell?"

"Yeah, wh-"

"Oh good, I totally ship you two."

"Right, well," Bridget said, opening the door, "We should probably get going. Don't want to keep your girlfriend waiting."

"Yes…" Jesse quickly followed Bridget out of the room.

"Wait for me!" Heather yelled, but they were gone before she could catch up.

"Hi, would you like to be a member of the B-" Emily tried to hand to girls a flyer but they just brushed past her and snickered. "This is useless," She said, slamming the stack of flyers onto the table.

"If it makes you feel better, this is exactly what happened to Chloe and Aubrey four years ago. And they got a team that went on to be world champions." Beca said.

"It's gonna be fine," Benji said.

Beca saw Jesse and Bridget walking up to the table and nudged Emily's side, "Well, I've got at least one girl for ya."

"Who?"

"What's up, my aca-people?" Jesse said when he got to the table.

"You can go back home," Beca told him.

"Hey Jesse!" Emily said, "Who is this?

"This is my somewhat-lovely sister, and your newest Bella."

"I'm Bridget," she said, sending a glare Jesse's way, "it's nice to meet you."

"You too! Is he joking about the Bella thing?" Emily said, breaking into a whiper, "Please tell me he's not joking."

"No, no. I'll be at auditions."

"Oh thank god."

"Hey Beca, Benji," Bridget said, acknowledging the two others who had been at the table.

"Hey," Beca and Benji said simultaneously.

Jesse walked over to Benji, giving him a bro hug, which Benji awkwardly tried to reciprocate. Bridget just shook her head.

"You actually let him move you in, huh." Beca said, leaning on the table as Emily went back to flyering.

"I didn't have much of a choice," Bridget said. "You had to go and leave before I even got up."

"Oh yeah, sorry about that."

At that moment, Jesse and Benji burst into laughter over apparently nothing.

"How do you live with them?" Bridget asked Beca.

"I ask myself the same question on a daily basis. I'm seriously considering moving back into the Bella house."

"I would."

"BRIDGET!" Bridget cringed when she heard Heather's voice, and jumped when the girl appeared at her side. "I found you guys!"

"Hey, Heather," Bridget got out, "Um, this is Beca."

"Oh wow, you're Beca! You're a lot prettier up close."

"Um…" Beca asked, taken aback.

"You know," Bridget said, trying to save Beca, "You should go talk to Emily. She's in charge of the Bellas this year."

"Ooh good idea!" Heather said, and headed toward Emily.

"Who was that?" Beca demanded.

"My roommate. She's kind of obsessed with a cappella. And a bit of a stalker apparently." Bridget said, making a mental note to apologize to Emily later.

"And I thought my freshman roommate was bad."


	2. Girl, You Know You Better Watch Out

I'm sort of in awe of the response I got from just the first chapter - so thank you all! I'm SO SO sorry this took so long to publish. I'm working all the time and when I'm not working or sleeping I'm usually out with friends, probably at the beach. I will try my best to get the next chapter up sooner. I hope you guys enjoy this one!

"Welcome to this year's a cappella auditions. There was a dispute between whether the recent national champions or the recent world champions should pick the song, so you all can sing whatever you want."

Bridget sat in the auditorium with about forty or fifty prospective a cappella singers. There was a scrawny kid on stage talking to them, and she wondered if he was in one of the groups.

"We have to pick a song?" Heather whispered-yelled to her, "I don't have anything prepared! I thought they were gonna tell us what to sing!"

"Dude, chill out. It doesn't matter what you sing as long as you _can_ sing."

"There are four groups, and you'll be singing for all of them," the scrawny kid continued, "If a group likes you, they'll contact you personally. You'll all have to wait outside the stage door and come in one at a time."

Bridget looked over at Heather, who was nervously biting her nails, and took the hand away from her mouth, "Come on, you can practice in the hallway."

"What are you guys doing here?" Emily asked and stared confusingly at Beca and Chloe, who had just sat down next to her in the auditorium. Auditions were going to start any minute.

"Chloe dragged me here, I had no part in this," Beca huffed, grateful that Chloe had finally let go of her arm.

"We're here to help you!" Chloe said cheerfully.

"I didn't ask you guys fo-"

"Oh I know but I couldn't help it. Besides, we didn't get to hold auditions our senior year. This makes up for it."

"My senior year," Beca whispered, "your super super super senior year."

"Excuse me, Beca, I thought we were past this," Chloe said.

"We are," Beca rolled her eyes, "So what are they singing Em?"

"Dunno," Emily said, looking through the information sheets of the girls auditioning.

"What you mean you don't know?" Chloe whispered as a guy walked on to the stage. "I swear, did they let the Treblemakers choose, and then not tell you. Or were you not paying attention."

"No, I really don't know Chlo," Emily said, "They're allowed to sing whatever they want."

"Oh," Chloe said, sinking into her seat.

Auditions dragged on. A good girl here, and okay girl there. Emily wondered if there were always this many freaking people that auditioned.

Eventually Heather walked out on stage, and sang Wrecking Ball in honor of the graduated Fat Amy. She was weird, Emily thought, but her voice would get her by.

Directly after Heather was Bridget, and Emily let out a sigh of relief.

"Hi, my name's Bridget —"

"LEGACY," one of the Treblemakers yelled from the back of the auditorium.

"HEY," Emily yelled back, "That's MY nickname! And she can't even join your stupid group!"

There was a momentary silence before Bridget started talking again. "So I'm Bridget. Yeah, um, Jesse's my older brother. Here goes…I guess."

Bridget belted out the chorus of Fight Song by Rachel Platten, and any nerves she had before melted away instantly.

Emily was very thankful, and also a little jealous, that so much talent ran in Jesse's family. Though she guessed she couldn't really talk when her mother had also been a Bella.

The rest of the auditions were agonizingly long. But there were enough girls who could sing that the Bellas would be back at it again this year. Emily knew she had a lot of work to do if she was ever going to sing at Lincoln Center.

"Now repeat after me: 'I, sing your name,'"

"I, Bridget," Bridget cringed at the off-key, totally un-harmonized sound of all nine new Bellas _singing_ their names."

"'Promise to uphold the ideals of a Bella woman forever.'"

"Promise to uphold the ideals of a Bella woman forever."

"That's it." Emily said.

"That's it?" Tricia, a girl so tall Bridget didn't even know girls _could_ be that tall, asked.

"Yup!" Emily said, "You can hook up with whoever you want."

The girls all looked at each other very confused. Bridget laughed, because she had heard the story of former leader Audrey's crazy oath from Beca.

"Well, now that you've all been initiated, it's time for Hood Night!" Emily said, gesturing for the girls to follow her out of the Bella House.

"Hood what now?"

"Welcome to the Treble House.." Emily said as they entered the Treble's backyard. "This is aca-initiation night, or Hood Night, as we like to call it. Everyone here is from one of the four a cappella groups on campus. Have a drink, dance, talk to people. I'll see you guys on Wednesday for rehearsal."

The new Bellas stood where they were, not sure what they should do.

"Go have fun, seriously," Emily said. They all started to wander, sticking to at least one other new Bella.

"This is awesome," Bridget said to Emily after the other girls had left. "How'd the other auditions go?"

"They were fine," Emily said, "All the girls can sing a melody, so that's good. But a cappella is a different story."

"We'll be fine."

"I can't believe you dragged me to Hood Night," Beca said, trying to keep up with Jesse and Benji, "And why do you have to walk so fast?"

"It is not our fault you have short legs Bec," Jesse said, slowing down to walk with her, "And Emily invited us."

"Emily invited _Benji_. Her boyfriend. Which makes sense. We don't go to Barden anymore."

"Yeah, yeah," Jesse said, "Look, why don't you and Benji find Emily, and I'll go get us some drinks."

"Fine."

"Benji, you made it!" Emily said, hugging him as she approached him and Beca, "Beca, what are you doing here?"

"Jesse," Beca said through gritted teeth.

"Gotcha."

"How are the new Bellas?" Benji asked, "Also, how are the new Trebles?"

"I don't even know who they took Benj," Emily said, "And I'll be ecstatic if we even make it to Regionals."

"I'm gonna go find Jesse, you guys have fun," Beca said.

Jesse wandered through the party trying to find his lost friends. _Are the freshman actually more wild this year, or is it just because I'm out of college?_ he thought. Finally he spotted them across the pool, dancing and laughing.

"Here Bec," He said when he got to them, nudging her shoulder with the drink.

Except it wasn't Beca.

"Jesse!?" She said when she turned around, a drink already in hand.

"Bridget! What are you doing?"

"I'm a Bella, this is initiation night. What are you doing here?"

"I — Benji invited me and Beca to come along."

"No, I didn't," Benji interjected before Emily could pull him away.

"You're drinking!" Jesse yelled at her.

"So are you!" Bridget said back, "I'm in college! What do you expect?"

Jesse didn't say anything. He couldn't say anything. His little sister was at a college party. With boys. Drinking. He thought he'd have a heart attack if he stood near her any longer.

About an hour later, Bridget, Emily, Benji, Jesse, and Beca were sitting around a bonfire in the very back of the backyard. Beca had gotten a few drinks into Jesse, who in turn had calmed down.

"You'll never guess who took over the Trebles Jesse," Emily said.

"Who?"

Emily started laughing, and couldn't get any words out.

"Who!?"

"Sorry," Emily said, regaining her voice, "Trent Donovan."

"Trent Donovan? Are you kidding me? I would have preferred literally anyone else."

"What's wrong with Trent Donovan?" Bridget asked.

"He's an asshole," Jesse said.

"He's not an asshole," Benji said, "He just didn't like to listen to Jesse, that's all."

"And he's an ass."

"Speak of the devil," Beca said as she saw Trent walking in their direction.

"Jesse," Trent said, "Benji, Beca. I thought you all graduated."

"We did," Jesse snapped back.

"Don't be the new Bumper, Jess."

"Don't call me that, Trent."

"Hey we're all friends here," Trent said, sitting down next to Bridget on her bench, "You're Bridget right?"

"Yeah," she said.

"I loved your audition," he said, putting his arm on the top of the bench behind her.

"Thanks," Bridget said, taking note of the scowl on Jesse's face.

"Well, as nice as it was to see all of you again, I have new recruits to take care of." Trent got up and walked back toward the party.

"Emily, can you re-install that oath?" Jesse asked.

(p.s. I don't own Pitch Perfect or any characters from Pitch Perfect or the song Fight Song)


End file.
